BIØN is a network of organisations active in low-impact building techniques. We aim to share knowledge, practices and experiences to contribute to the built environment and our communities. Listen in to our diverse European network when we share our perspectives on building with natural materials, creating circular designs and working closely with the local communities.

In this building workshop in Benevento, Italy, Ak0 experimented with rammed earth and prefabricated wall elements in rammed earth. Check out all our tutorial videos on rammed earth to learn how to make the formwork, mix, ramming, assemble and coating.

Our Italian partner AK0 - architettura a kilometro zero is running a training program for sustainable architecture in Côte d'Ivoire. Practical workshops are at the base of a series of activities that aim at promoting the use of renewable building techniques in the rural areas of the West-African country.

The exhibition on the Bi0n network is coming to an end!

Thank you all for contributing your work and building new practices. We will now move out of Open studio at Färgfabriken, very satisfied with having shared our work in the Stockholm area. Thank you all!

All partners gathered in Stockholm for an intense work session on future plans for the network. We summarised the learnings from the partners and reflected on improvements to strengthen circular building practices all across Europe.

On Friday 17th June 2022, AES Studio’s Anna Sundman and Emily Aquilina hosted the international Conference ‘Down to Earth’ at Färgfabriken in Stockholm, Sweden. The event focused on the current practice and future possibilities for sustainability in the architectural and construction industries. Gaining insights into the practical knowledge, built work and natural/circular material innovations of BIØN, the Building Impact Zero Network, produced over a six-year European funded project.

BASEhabitat invited Tânia Teixeira to speak at a theory lecture for the University of Linz under the title Working in Networks - BIØN Building Impact Zero Network.

Building Impact Zero Network finishes 6 years of experimental building with circular materials, and now we want to share it with you! In a full day conference we will share our practical explorations in biological- and low-impact building techniques and all the surrounding knowledge of people-led movements, cooperative strength and the latest on earth building research

We are happy to announce to all friends of Bi0n that we now have set the date for the conference in Sweden. We will gather all partners and the knowledge from our 6 years of experimental building! So save the date and join us in Stockholm.

self-construction and prefabrication. How can these apparently contrasting approaches be combined? This is one of the questions investigated during the LearnBI0N workshop in Benevento.

The workshop participants will contribute to the realisation of a set of fix furniture for the new barbecue area of Caffè dell'Orto - Fattoria Sociale Orto di Casa Betania, a social enterprise that uses urban farming as an opportunity for persons with disabilities or social difficulties to have an independent live. All the structures will be built with raw earth, namely with the technique of rammed earth.

When our Italian partner-organisation AK0 - architettura a kilometro zero started its cooperation project on sustainable architecture in Côte d'Ivoire in 2017, one of the goals was to train local craftsmen and inhabitants and enable them to take advantage of locally available resources such as raw earth, natural fibres and centuries of non-codified yet deep and precious knowledge.

At a second level, this social dimension of the working group was reflected on the social dimension the projects brought to the local communities. Here factors such as hospitality, curiosity, helpfulness progressively contributed to overcome feelings of scepticism or even refuse. In those workshops were representatives of the beneficiary community were involved as trainees this dimension was particularly strong.

Design and Build with Wattle-and-Daub and Light Earth, a four weeks workshop in Casaprota, a town of 740 inhabitants in the inner Sabina region, Italy. During the workshop we colonized an abandoned concrete-skeleton using natural building techniques and aiming at revitalising it as a venue for community gatherings and small events.

Last July, during workshop #2 of the LearnBIØN-program, AK0 together with local associations and the municipality of Casaprota have equipped a training location for sustainable architecture within an abandoned building in central Italy.

As an integration to the library project developed by the local association Dehesa Tierra, AK0 was invited to work on the experimentation, which led to the construction of a small piece of fix furniture. The Rome based association partnered with Rossella Siani, adjunct professor in Parametric Design from the University of Naples, for this experience.

Last weekend AK0 together with a small team of volunteers and trainees got back to Casaprota where the association had build a small multipurpose building as the result of LearnBIØN workshop#2 during the month of July.

The educational building site inaugurated in Casaprota, Italy, to host last July’s LearnBIØN workshop #2 will be the location for further initiatives:

BIØN-partner AK0 is organizing RENDER01, a three-days workshop open to architects, building professionals or self-constructors who want to learn more about natural finishes for internal and external walls. The workshop will take place next November from Friday 10th till Sunday 12th